Blogs from Togo, Africa - page 6

More singing! Played soccer yesterday --- how is it that even bare-footed these guys are better than me. Speaking of guys from the village turn out for building the school I thought this village was all women, but come the soccer game low and behold! Men! And why did we play with such small nets that it was impossible to score. They must love 0 - 0 games! Work was over at 10:15 am again. Man if no one wants to work I’m not going to complain! Two French girls joined our group. Perhaps this will inspire me to give a crap about singing and sh*t, but I doubt it. Have to sing a song The Togolese guys here are very nice (like Cyriaque and and Fabien) but they all like dancing. Singing another song Well ... read more

The work camp has finally commenced. Not what I was expecting, but I shall reserve final judgment. First the group is made up almost entirely of Togolese guys, with one German girl, Larissa, who has a nice demeanour. Five more Europeans are supposed to show up soon, we’ll see. All the cute French girls are in the other “chantier” in town, including Debora (the hot French girl who showed up on the 19th in Lome). I spent the weekend hanging out with that group (one guy Alex from Paris is the only other western guy) but they are all into culture stuff. This brings me to my biggest problem here --- I didn’t sign up to sing and dance! Give me a shovel and otherwise let me read Joyce and listen to BBC World in peace. ... read more

Have been relaxing in Lome, getting visas and such. Today an ordeal at the Benin consulate. F**king idiot old man! Don’t want me to come to your sh**ty country to spend cash? TIA! From hell’s heart I stab at thee! (Just finished Moby Dick). Anyway I’ll have to erase some pages as I’m one page short, but I’m sure in a worst case scenario I can bribe the Togolese border guards to cover an old stamp. Still need a Ghana visa as well! Been eating well, but spending too much cash! I have gotten a hold of ASTOVOT Organisation I am doing a 3 week volunteer stint with but I still need to arrange transport to Balanka. Not too much to see here (I refuse to go to the fetish market!) but that’s cool --- relaxing. ... read more

Enter Togo, by means of the least likely looking dirt road imaginable. That there can be both a Ghanian and Togolese immigration Post at the end of this meagre country road, where the grass grows as tall as men and trees abound, seems impossible, and yet there they are. Only a few passengers produce passports and receive entry and exit stamps; the majority hand over folded notes of local currency to the border officials and resume their seats in the truck. After purchasing a visa in a nearby one horse town, we're dropped off in Kpalime. I want to call it a city, but can't - its just a small town - but it feels like a city in the sense that you can breathe in the belched black fumes of a dozen cars just by ... read more

Hey All! Happy Easter!! Man, this is my first Easter away from home...awwww...now I'm sad...but, maybe if I start writing about my trip this weekend I'll feel better...sure that sounds good. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on this little excursion...yeah...it's a shame too because the country was beautiful. Oh well, guess that means I'll just have to go back...oh darn. Okay, so for this weekend I decided to head east for a short overnight visit to Lome , the capital of Togo. This trip was funny however in the sense that my team roster changed all the way up until the last hour! Because of people's change of plans, or lack of passports I could only snag one other person to go with me. So Bethany and myself made up the Togo Duo. Which actually, it ... read more